The last few weeks have been pretty with the planning and executing the plans for the wedding held yesterday at Coniston. I talked with my Mom a lot during the last two days about transitions. Hers from being the mother of the bride or groom to the grandmother and mine transitioning to being the mother of the groom. All of the past family weddings I have been a sibling, bride or friend. This was very different. As I walked down the aisle I honestly thought, "Why are they looking at me, the bride with be along in 60 seconds?" I also laughed when at the rehearsal the minister said "We will save the chairs down in front for the old fogies" and I pointed at myself and said "She is talking about me!"
The three days before the wedding were a flurry of family involved in activies at Coniston. Wiring done by brother Charles, flowers down by Peg and Ruby, English family entertained by George and Judy while we dined at the Blue Paddle Bistro with the wedding party. Our English family helped get the tent set up, set up tables and lent many extra hands to the effort.
The ceremony was perfect for this couple. The wind blowing through the delicate fabric strung over the arbor could not have been done better in a Hollywood movie.
I was fine with the crying bit sort of. . . until I saw my son with tears standing under the arbor, and then saw my daughter in tears walking back down the aisle. I could not even look at Rod for most of the ceremony, if I wanted to see the rest of it. It was a "two hanky day", and we used both of them.
And then the party began! The DJ played music from 4 - 9 pretty non-stop. Both families have people who love to dance. The obligatory Coniston bocce game was played by the wedding party (in all seasons, we play bocce on the front lawn with our guests), and coming from a family of pyromaniacs, the bonfire really lit up the night sky.
Our neighbors have a daughter who invited herself to the wedding and arrived with her Mom in tow later in the evening. She asked if she could talk to the bride, she danced with the bride, and took home a caramel apple and a napkin with the names of the bride and groom on it. This was her first wedding. It was interesting to take a step back and see a wedding through the eyes of an eight year old. She left saying "I cannot see them right now but say good bye to the bride and prince for me."
This was the first wedding of the next generation of cousins on my side. They were all there, and we in our generation talked a lot about what kinds of weddings they will have. What kinds of impressions did they take away from watching their oldest cousin/brother get married? Do they remember attending their first wedding? Did they talk to the bride or dance with the bride and talk home that special treasure from the wedding?
Coniston is changed forever now that we have had a wedding here. The arbor is permanent and the holes drilled for the tent stakes are permanent. The tent is not permanent except in our memory. This afternoon, when flames from the bonfire erupted (YIKES, I thought the fire was out) Bee looked at it and said "Their love is still burning." May the memory of the bonfire and the music and the family and friends and the bocce game carry us forward to the next wedding memories we create. Who will be married next?
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